Jobs - 98052- Int’l consultant to support the UNCT-SWAP Gender E

Int’l consultant to support the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard

Location :

Manama, BAHRAIN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Apr-2021

Application Deadline :

22-Apr-21 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

2 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

20 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

At the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly, Member States, in adopting the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR) of Operational Activities for Development of the UN System called on all UN organizations to: “mainstream gender and to pursue gender equality in their country programmes, planning instruments and sector-wide programmes and to articulate specific country-level goals and targets in this field in accordance with the national development strategies”.

Further, ECOSOC Resolution 2004/4 - Review of Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system requested: “the Secretary-General to ensure that all United Nations entities develop action plans with time lines for implementing the agreed conclusions 1997/2, which address the gap between policy and practice identified in the Secretary-General’s report, with a view to strengthening commitment and accountability at the highest levels within the United Nations system as well as to establishing mechanisms to ensure accountability, systematic monitoring and reporting on progress in implementation”.

As a direct follow-up to the QCPR, and to ensure a comprehensive response to many of its recommendations, the UN Development Group (UNDG, now UNSDG) created a Task Team on Gender Equality as a sub-group of the UNDG Programme Group. The goals of the Task Team are: to support more consistent and coherent action among UNDG member agencies to mainstream gender equality and promote women’s empowerment at the country level; and to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are mainstreamed into the tools and processes that emerge from the UNDG for UN Country Teams (UNCTs).

In 2006, the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality commissioned a background paper on accountability mechanisms in UNDG agencies. This paper reviewed accountability for programming in support of gender equality in ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WFP and found that: “A common understanding of how to apply gender mainstreaming in UN operational activities is needed. This is because if there is no agreement on what constitutes a minimum level of actions to support gender equality, how will it be possible to hold agencies and UN Country Teams accountable for this. Reaching agreement across agencies on what constitutes a minimally acceptable performance to support gender equality, through an agreed set of indicators, would contribute to stronger guidance and accountability”. Subsequently this background paper was endorsed at the UNDG Principals’ meeting in July 2006, where agreement was reached on development of a UNCT-level “Accounting for Gender Equality” Scorecard that sets minimum requirements for UNCTs to assess their performance across the system.

The Gender Scorecard was endorsed by the UNDG in 2008 in response to the UN Chief Executive Board for Coordination 2006 Policy on gender equality and the empowerment of women (CEB/2006/2) to establish an accountability framework for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming by UN Country Teams.

The 2016 QCPR calls for the United Nations development system to expand and strengthen the use of the Gender Scorecard as a planning and reporting tool for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming in the context of the UNDAF (OP 83; now Cooperation Framework). Building on this call, an updated version of the framework, the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard, was launched in 2018, resulting from almost two years of work by the UNSDG Task Team on Gender Equality under the Results Group on Voice, Values and Norms, to align the Action Plan with the SDGs and to it with its entity level equivalent, the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan, drawing on good global practices with motivating, managing and measuring institutional change processes. Furthermore, the 2019 UNSDG United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework Guidance calls for UN entities to “put gender equality at the heart of programming, driving the active and meaningful participation of both women and men, and consistently empowering women and girls, in line with the minimum requirements agreed upon by the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) in the UNCT System-wide Action Plan (SWAP) Gender Equality Scorecard” (para 20).

In order to support the development of the gender-responsive Cooperation Framework for Bahrain and ensure better accountability of UNCT towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with UN corporative policy in this area, the UN Country Team will use the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard (UNCT-SWAP) to assess status, and identify gaps and corrective actions. The UN Gender Thematic Group (or other) will lead this process to complete the UNCT-SWAP process in a participatory and timely manner.

Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities: The main objective of this consultancy is to facilitate the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard and assess the effectiveness of the UN Country Team in gender mainstreaming, promotion of gender equality, and women's empowerment. The consultant will also provide a set of actions for improvements and identify relevant reporting milestones for the annual performance review and assessment reporting of the RCO and UNCT. Within delegated authority, the consultant will be responsible for the following duties:

To share good practice in supporting national priorities to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.

Scope of Work and Deliverables:

The UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard methodology has been designed for in-country self-assessment as a means of fostering deeper understanding and ownership of results. The external gender specialist will facilitate the exercise and apply participatory methods to ensure the assessment team is formed from the beginning of exercise, leads and own the process.

To guide and support the Inter-Agency Assessment Team (IAT), the consultant will conduct the following activities within a stipulated timeframe of 20 working days:

Background document review:

UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard Technical Guidance and Framework
UNCT-SWAP reports for the countries in the regions and from other countries
Current country CCA and Strategic Partnership Framework 2018-2022
New UNSDG United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework Guidance
UNCT planning, budgeting, and programming documents
UN Gender Theme Group's TOR, 2019 report and 2020 plan (or equivalent)
CEDAW Reports/other national assessments/national Gender Plans and legislation, etc.

Assistance and support for the IAT with the in-country assessment:

Support the collection of complementary data and evidence to rate indicators
Conduct gender analysis of verification documents required to help the IAT rate areas of performance
Facilitate working sessions with and provide technical support to key stakeholders such as the Resident Coordinator; Heads of Agencies; key programme staff; M&E teams, partners, etc. to discuss and score areas of performance.
Complete the rating matrix based on IAT discussions and agreements.
Facilitate a debrief with the UNCT HOAs to discuss findings and proposed actions.

Reporting:

Draft UNCT-SWAP narrative report, with inputs from IAT.
Prepare Action Plan based on agreed follow-up action points identified through the assessment.

Complete the final draft of the UNCT-SWAP narrative report and Action Plan based on feedback, including from the UNCT HOAs.

Competencies

To assist UNCT entities in identifying areas in which they are meeting or not meeting minimum UNSDG minimum requirements on gender mainstreaming practices and performance.

To stimulate a constructive dialogue within the UNCT about the current status of support for gender equality and women's empowerment, and how it can be improved.

To identify where technical assistance can support the achievement of minimum requirements.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced (Masters) degree in social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality etc. PhD degree is an asset.

Experience:

At least 10 years of practical experience of work on gender mainstreaming in development programmes/projects at national and international levels;

At least 3 years of experience of work on results-based management, review and/or evaluation;

Experience in gender data collection and analysis, including interviews, survey and focus groups;

Previous experience with the Gender Equality Scorecard, narrative report and follow-up matrix;

Experience on conducting gender trainings for staff of development agencies.

Language and other skills:

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat.

For this position, Fluency in English is required, knowledge of Arabic is desirable.

Computer skills, internet communication and command of MS Office are required

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consultant may be requested to undertake the assignment remotely in view of constraints regarding visa issuance, international travel and access to UN premises. Applicants must be willing and prepared to undertake the assignment remotely for a part or the entirety of the consultancy.